Membership cards, such as health club cards, video rental cards, library cards, promotional cards, discount cards, and loyalty cards (e.g., frequent flyer cards, grocery discount cards, and the like) are widely used. The proliferation of such membership cards has escalated to the point where over 60% of the population in Europe possesses two or more loyalty cards, and nearly 80% of all grocery transactions in the U.S. take place with a membership card.
Membership cards may include a variety of different indicia to identify the card, the individual using the card, a membership account, an expiration date, and other information. The indicia may include a string of alphanumeric characters, a barcode, or an encoded magnetic strip attached to the card. In the case where barcodes are used as the indicia, an organization typically creates a membership card that includes only one such barcode.
Vendors that wish to track member activity typically want to ensure that each user of an account receive a membership card that is appropriately associated with the membership account. Unfortunately, these cards have taken over the space in people's wallets and purses.
Vendors have also issued smaller versions of their loyalty cards that are designed to be attached to a keychain. These devices contain only the basic indicia representing the membership identifier, such as a single barcode containing the owner's membership number. This has resulted in cumbersome key chains that burden the consumer just as much as the cards. The typical consumer now carries several cards in his wallet and a plethora of key chain tokens. Furthermore, while consumers are being bombarded with new card offers daily, they still have to carry credit cards, driver's licenses, and often choose to carry pictures of their loved ones as well.
In an attempt to reduce the number of such cards carried by an individual, bar code numbers have been provided to a card provider that prints several bar codes on one card. See, e.g., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2007.0007348; www.one-der-card.com; www.justoneclubcard.com. These devices, however, are limited by the number of different membership accounts that can be incorporated without the card becoming too large.
There remains, therefore, a need for a single, unitary membership card that can replace a plurality of pre-existing membership accounts.